—The middle of the 12th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar
The royal capital was thoroughly wrapped in a wintery atmosphere, and there
had been enough cold days in a row that it felt like the snow might start to fall soon.
It was a morning where I didn't really want to get out from under a warm blanket.
"I have some important business to attend to in the castle town today..." I said,
bringing up the topic while eating breakfast with my four fiancées, as usual. "It'd
help to have a woman come along. Would one of you mind?"
"Is that for work? It doesn't sound like you're heading out to play." Liscia asked as
a representative of the group, to which I nodded with a wry smile.
"Sadly, it is. It's an important matter this time, so I have to head out personally."
"I see... I can go. How about everyone else?" Liscia asked, turning the topic to the
other three. It felt like she already had the dignity of the first queen, bringing all of
the others together under her.
Roroa was the first to raise her arms above her head in an X. "I'm afraid you're
gonna have to count me out, sadly. Darlin's already asked me to negotiate with the
merchant's guild."
"About making the slave traders public servants, you mean?" Liscia asked.
"That's right. Darlin's already made the used metal dealers into public servants
and has them workin' in the recyclin' industry, or somethin' like that, but this time
it's not gonna go so easily. The used metal dealers were like trash pickers, so they
weren't part of a guild. Slave traders, on the other hand, while they may be looked
down on, they're proper, registered members of a guild. If we're takin' them away
from the guild and puttin' them under the control of the state, that's effectively
creatin' a monopoly on slaves."
Roroa picked up the salt shaker as she said this, then continued.
"If it were metal or salt, there'd be some precedent, but I ain't never heard of
anyone creatin' a monopoly on slaves before. Slaves aren't somethin' you produce
locally for local consumption. Naturally, they come in from other countries, too. If
we're nationalizin' the slave trade, we'll also need to stop those flows from other
countries. As public servants, their wages'll be stable, but they'll never make money
hand over fist. That's why the slave traders who want to make the big bucks will go
to other countries. There'll be some pushback, too."
"I'm ready to accept some pushback on this," I said.
I was fine with convict slaves being sentenced to hard labor, but I wanted to put
an end to the era where women and children were sold off so there would be fewer
mouths to feed, and where it was taken as a given that the child of a slave was also a
slave. That wasn't only from a humanitarian point of view, it was also to make this
country more prosperous as a whole.
However, Roroa, who had been tasked with the negotiations, had a grim look on
her face. "I'm sure your aim is to downsize the system of slavery, Darlin'... but I'm not
sure there're enough convict slaves and economic slaves in this country alone to
meet demand. It's a real problem."
"Is it going to be too difficult?" I asked.
Roroa shook her head. "I'll do it. I want to see this world after slavery that you've
been tellin' me about, after all. One where everyone earns money, everyone uses
money, and everyone makes the economy turn... That's the world I want to see."
I had told the clever Roroa a bit about the economic history of my world. I had
told her about that era of technological revolution where goods had begun to be
mass-produced. There had been a demand for markets to sell those goods to, and so
there had been a movement toward freeing the slaves who'd held no assets in order
to create that market.
Naturally, I knew there were people who had fought under the ideology that all
people should have equal rights. I couldn't deny the hard work of the slaves who'd
fought to win their own freedom, or the efforts of those who'd wished for them to be
free. However, with any system, it always came down to whether or not that system
was suitable for the time it existed in.
The war between the North and South United States had been called a war of
emancipation, but it was more that the North had held up the ideal of freeing the
slaves in order to gather support against the forces of the South, which had included
many plantation owners. What had once been considered an impractical ideal was
accomplished the moment it aligned with the facts of the situation.
Conversely, no matter how wonderful an ideal is, if it's not in line with the times,
it will be trampled underfoot.
In the end, it's a matter of the times in which we live. I mean, even when slavery
ended, we would have conflict between the capitalist class and the laborers waiting
for us in the next era. However, in the story I told her, Roroa seemed to see a new
frontier.
"It may take bein' a little heavy handed, but if we move together with the Empire,
it can be done," she said. "If half of the territory ruled by mankind on this continent
is movin' to reduce slavery, it'll be hard to push back against us. Then, when there's
a shortage of labor, though this is reversin' the cause and effect from your story,
Darlin', technology'll have to advance to fill the gap."
"Yeah," I said. "I've got a path toward that. You can leave it to me."
"I'm countin' on that. Because I'll be doin' what I can myself."
I nodded. "I'm relying on you."
"Mwahaha. Say it again."
Roroa and I locked arms firmly. I really was counting on Roroa to handle the
economic front.
Now, if Roroa couldn't make it today, what about Aisha or Juna?
"I am sorry to have to say this, but I have a meeting for our next music program,
so I won't be able to accompany you," said Juna.
"I-I was asked to join the new recruits for training..." said Aisha. "Of course, if you
insist on it, sire, I will cast aside my prior engagement to be with you."
"No, I'm not going to insist," I said. "Hm... But, well..."
I don't really want to bring that large of an entourage this time. If I had a lot of
people with me, I would put the other party on guard. Though, that said, I didn't feel
entirely safe going without bodyguards. I mean, Liscia was going to be with me, too,
after all.
Although Liscia does have more combat prowess than the average guard.
The Black Cats were currently dealing with clandestine operations in many other
countries, so they likely couldn't spare the people to serve as guards. If possible, I
had wanted either Aisha, who had the greatest individual combat strength, or Juna,
who could also gather intelligence, to accompany us. As I was thinking about that...
"Your Majesty, might I offer a suggestion?" The head maid Serina, who was
standing ready by the wall, gave an elegant bow.
"Serina? Did you have an opinion on this?" I asked.
"Yes. If you are looking for a guard, there is an individual I might like to
recommend."
"Who might that be?" I asked.
"Your Majesty's personal trainer, Sir Owen."
"Urgh... Old Man Owen, huh..."
She was referring to the old general and head of the House of Jabana, Owen
Jabana. He was a hearty old man whose personality was serious and honest to the
point of being excessively passionate. I had liked his willingness to express an
opinion and had taken him on as my sounding board and educator.
True, he's a capable warrior, and given his post, he wouldn't have much to do while
I'm gone. He's always noisy, and I don't think he's suited for going out discreetly,
though.
While I was considering the idea, Serina continued. "You should also take Carla
from the Maid Corps with you."
"Huh?! Me?!" Carla, who was standing beside Serina, cried out in surprise.
"Carla is enlisted with the Maid Corps, but she is Your Majesty's slave," said
Serina. "At times like this, you really must use her as your meat— work her like a
horse."
"Were you about to say meat shield?!" Carla protested. "Wait, even now that
you've corrected it to horse, that's still pretty bad!"
Serina whipped out her maid training crop.
"Ah! Yes, ma'am! I will serve with sincerity and devotion!" Carla hurriedly
saluted.
She's been completely broken in, huh...
"Anyway, Carla, I'll be counting on you," I said.
"U-Understood, master," she said.
So for now, it was decided that four people of Liscia, Owen, Carla, and I would be
going to the castle town together.
I already felt exhausted just from having come to that decision.
And so, we came to the castle town of Parnam.
Liscia, Owen, Carla, and I were walking down the shopping street in the middle of
the day. Because we were here in secret, we were traveling on foot and not by
carriage.
"Gahaha!" Owen laughed. "I am pleased that you would choose me as your
bodyguard, Your—"
"Shh! Owen... How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Your Majesty in
the middle of town like this?" I hissed.
"Oh, my apologies."
The way Owen laughed it off without looking the least bit guilty made my head
hurt. Owen seemed to be in a good mood over being chosen as my bodyguard, so he
was even more high-strung than usual.
"We're here in secret this time... so, please, I'm begging you," I said.
"But of course, I am aware of that," boomed Owen.
Was he really? For a group that was trying to be discreet, we stood out to a
strange degree.
There was me wearing the Kitakaze Kozou-esque traveler's clothes that had
become my go-to outfit when undercover; Liscia wearing the same student's
uniform she'd worn when we'd first gone into the castle town together; Carla the
dragonewt in a maid uniform; and an old, macho man in light adventurers' armor.
All of us were walking together. What was with this completely mismatched
ensemble? I couldn't blame passersby for turning their heads to take a second look
at us.
"Even a hastily assembled adventuring party would look more like a unified
group than we do..." I murmured.
"If you had just worn a student uniform like last time, wouldn't that have been
fine?" asked Liscia. "It's not like Sir Owen couldn't pass for a teacher in his outfit."
"By the same token, if you had dressed like an adventurer, we might have looked
like an adventuring party," I said.
While we argued back and forth, we both looked back at the dragon maid behind
us.
"Wh-What?! Why are you both looking at me?" Carla cried.
"Either way, Carla was going to stand out, huh," Liscia nodded.
"I mean, yeah, she's wearing that highly revealing maid dress, after all," I said.
"She'd be out of place no matter how we dressed."
"Aren't you being awfully mean when I don't even wear this by choice?!" Carla
protested loudly, but... I mean, it was a maid dress.
Of course, we had proposed that she change into something else, but Serina
hadn't been willing to hear of it. Carla's maid uniform wasn't the classic type with a
long skirt; it was a frilly dress type (or, to take it a bit further, a maid cafe type).
Serina was a total sadist to make her walk around town in it. Carla had been bright
red with shame for a while now...
"By the way, Your... Sir Kazuya, is this really the road you want to take?" Owen
asked somewhat confusedly.
"Hm? Yeah, it is... Why?" I asked.
"No, it is just that, if I recall, this way leads to..."
"Ah! ...That's right." Liscia seemed to have realized something, too, but didn't
seem to want to say it. "If we continue down this road..."
...Oh, so that's what it is, I realized. "If we keep going, we'll hit the old slums, huh?"
"Indeed," said Owen. "It is not a place I would want to take the two of you."
Even in the royal capital Parnam, there was a dark side. Because of the large
population, there were those who succeeded in business, those who earned a
middling profit, and those who failed outright. The slums were a place where those
who had failed, but who hadn't fallen far enough to become slaves, would drift to
and work for their daily wages.
Many of the homes were shanties. It was unsanitary, and prone to outbreaks of
disease. The people who gathered here were of questionable origin, and the crime
rate was high.
That was the sort of place it had been, anyway.
"That's all in the past now," I said.
"It's changed?" Liscia asked.
"It'd be faster to just show you. I mean, when I was considering what to do about
the future of the slum town..." I made a gesture like I had something like a hose in my
hands as I spoke. "...I met someone who was strangely enthusiastic, going around
saying, 'Filth will be sterilized!'"
As we arrived in the former slum town...
"Huh?" Liscia tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"Hm?" Owen did the same.
When she saw their reaction, Carla did, too. "Is there something strange here,
Liscia?"
Even after she had fallen to become a slave, Liscia had forced Carla to keep
talking to her the way she had before. They were still good friends. It would be an
issue if it happened in public, but I wasn't about to tell Liscia how to behave herself
in private.
Still with a blank look on her face, Liscia responded to Carla, "Huh? ...Oh, yeah.
I've never been to the slums before, but I'm surprised at how different it is from
everything I'd heard."
"What had you heard?" asked Carla.
"That it's a dark, dank, moldy place with poor public order. I've heard the same,"
Owen explained.
He was right. The slums had been like that before.
"It's true that they look sparse, but the place looks pretty clean to me, you know?"
said Carla.
What we saw before us now was a scene of houses that just looked like white
blocks of tofu lined up. To put it in terms that a modern audience will understand,
imagine the sort of temporary houses that are set up in the affected area after an
earthquake. While they were spartan, they got a lot of sun and were bright. They
also were well ventilated, so they weren't dank. Admittedly, they could get a bit too
dry in winter. Even so, when we saw children drawing on the ground and playing, it
was hard to imagine that public order was bad here.
"Is this really the slums?" Liscia asked.
"Yeah. It's gotten a lot better, hasn't it?" I responded, puffing up my chest proudly.
"When I was addressing the sanitation problem in the city, I worked hard to get
everything in shape here."
"The sanitation problem?" asked Liscia. "If I recall, you mentioned that when you
were banning carriages from going down all but the largest roads, and when you set
up the water and sewer system, right? Was reworking these slums a part of that,
too?"
"I'm glad to see you remember," I said. "Yeah. It's easy for pathogenic bacteria to
grow in dark, dank, places that are poorly ventilated. On top of that, this being a
slum town, the residents don't get proper nutrition, so it's easier for them to get sick.
If an epidemic had gotten started, this would have been fertile ground for it to
spread rapidly."
"Pathogenic bacteria... I feel like I may have heard that word before," said Liscia.
She and the others were looking at me with faces that seemed to say "What are
those? Are they tasty?"
"Huh? Didn't I explain last time?" I asked.
Ah, come to think of it, I used the word when talking about the sedimentation
ponds, but I didn't explain it in detail, I thought. In that case... I guess I have to start by
explaining how people get sick.
"Well... In this world, there are little creatures too small for the eye to see, and
they exist in numbers far too great to count in the air, the ground, in our bodies—
everywhere you can imagine. These tiny creatures make things rot and cause
illnesses. On the other hand, they also cause foods to ferment, and there are some
with positive effects, too."
Using my meager knowledge of science (I was a humanities student, remember),
I explained to Liscia and the others about bacteria and microorganisms. I didn't feel
like they were getting it all that well, but for Liscia, who knew that my knowledge
could be far ahead of this country's academia in some places, she seemed satisfied
that "If Souma says they exist, they probably do."
The study of medicine and hygiene wasn't particularly well developed in this
world. One large factor in that was probably the existence of light magic. Light magic
heightened the body's ability to heal, even allowing it to recover from serious
wounds. It could even reattach severed limbs if administered quickly.
It seemed that, because of that, the study of medicine and hygiene hadn't
developed. That was why, in this world, there were very few who knew of the
existence of bacteria and microorganisms.
Light magic only activated the natural ability of the body to heal, so it had the
shortcoming of not being able to heal infectious diseases or the wounds of elderly
people whose natural ability to heal had declined. Because of that, until just recently,
the use of shady drugs and dodgy folk remedies had been rampant when it had come
to the treatment of infectious diseases. When I'd addressed the issue of hygiene, I'd
thought something needed to be done about this situation posthaste.
But before I could do that, I had first needed people to become aware of the
existence of bacteria and microorganisms they couldn't see.
"But how can people be aware of something they can't see?" Liscia asked.
"In this world, there are people who know about bacteria and microorganisms...
or rather, a race that does," I said. "When that race focuses with their 'third eye,' they
can see microorganisms that you wouldn't normally be able to see. I enlisted their
help."
"A third eye... Do you mean the three-eyed race?" Liscia asked, and I nodded.
The three-eyed race. They were a race that, as you would expect from their name,
had three eyes.
They lived in the warm lands in the north of the kingdom. Their defining trait
was that, in addition to the standard left and right eyes, they also had a third eye in a
slightly higher position in the middle of their forehead. It would be fine to imagine
them looking like Tien Shin*** or ***suke Sharaku, but it wasn't really an eyeball like
that. That eye was small and red. At a glance, it looked like a jewel was embedded
there.
Liscia let out a sigh. "I'm amazed they agreed to help. I've heard their race hates
having contact with outsiders."
"The reason for their xenophobia actually stems from that third eye, it seems."
The three-eyed could see things other races couldn't. It seemed that had been the
reason they'd grown to reject outsiders. The three-eyed could tell if someone had
good hygiene or not at a glance. That made them natural neat freaks, and they had
started to avoid contact with other races as much as possible.
On top of that, with that third eye, the three-eyed had learned of the existence of
bacteria. They knew them to be the cause of illnesses that couldn't be treated with
light magic. However, no matter how much the three-eyed insisted on this, the other
races who couldn't see the bacteria wouldn't believe them. In a world filled with
superstitions, even if they spoke the truth, it might seem like they were trying to
throw the world into chaos with some dubious new theory.
Because of that, the three-eyed had come to hate contact with other races, and
they'd developed their own independent system of medical knowledge and practice
only for their own race. When it came to the study of infectious diseases in
particular, their medical science was centuries ahead of this world. In this world
where humans and beastmen were thought to have lived long lives if they made it to
sixty, the three-eyed who originally had the same life expectancy now lived to eighty
on average.
"That's how I, as someone who knew what they were saying is the truth, was able
to arrange talks and request their assistance," I said. "With that done, in order to
demonstrate their abilities, I created a system that would let other races see bacteria
and microorganisms."
In other words, an optical microscope. This world already had lenses. (They had
glasses, after all.) For the rest, I'd drawn out a diagram of how I vaguely
remembered a microscope working, and the academics and craftsmen had created
one for me. That optical microscope had proved that the three-eyed were telling the
truth.
"But, man, the three-eyed really are incredible," I said. "I'd never have imagined
they'd already developed antibiotics."
"Auntie-buy-ought-ex?"
"Substances that prevent bacteria from multiplying like I was telling you about."
The famous example would be penicillin, I suppose. I mean, even a humanities
student like me had heard of it. (Though it was knowledge I'd picked up from
manga.) It was extracted from a blue-green colored mold, I think?
In the case of the three-eyed, they were extracting theirs from a special sort of
slime creature that could live in unsanitary conditions. They were a subspecies of
gelin, and they had the same sort of shape as Liquid Metal *limes. They had no name,
but I'd taken this chance to christen them "gelmedics." From what I had heard of its
effects, there was no questioning it was an antibiotic, but while it was similar to
penicillin, it might also be very different.
Incidentally, the three-eyed just called this drug "the drug."
That felt like it was just going to get confusing in the future, so I'd used my
authority as king to give it the name "three-eyedine." It was the three-eyed race's
medicine, so I'd shortened that to three-eyedine. I mean, it would have been fine
calling it "the drug," or "the pill"... but, as a former Japanese person, I'd always have
been thinking of completely different drugs.
"This... three-eyedine, was it?" Liscia asked. "It prevents the bacteria from
multiplying, but what good does that do?"
"It's a cure for infectious diseases," I said. "Basically, you can think of it as a
wonder drug that treats epidemic diseases and will prevent wounds from festering, I
guess."
"Treat epidemic diseases?! It can do that?!"
I couldn't blame Liscia for being surprised. While this country's medical
treatments (in particular, regenerative treatments) could be, in some limited ways,
ahead of modern science, on the whole, they were at the same level as Japan in the
Edo Period. When it came to infectious diseases, they would drink medicinal teas,
trying to ease the symptoms. However, with antibiotics, it was possible to treat the
underlying cause of illnesses to some degree.
Liscia looked taken aback. "That's terrible... We've been overlooking an incredible
drug like that all this time..."
"Well, the other races didn't recognize the existence of bacteria and
microorganisms, so even if the three-eyed had told you that antibiotics could fight
them, you probably weren't going to believe them. If you turn it around, the threeeyed were only able to find this way of fighting bacteria because they could see
them."
"So, can we mass produce this three-eyedine?!" Liscia asked, looking desperate to
hear more.
Yeah, I could understand how she felt. I'd had a similar response myself during
talks with the three-eyed elder. However, Carla and Owen, who were watching us,
were wide-eyed with surprise at the way Liscia was acting.
I nodded to Liscia. "We don't have the capacity for it yet, but we're slowly
increasing production. I had already distributed it to the military when the war with
Amidonia broke out, actually. Didn't you notice?"
"Fortunately, I never needed to take any... Ah! Now that you mention it, I did
think the number of fatalities was low given the number of wounded in that battle.
Was that thanks to three-eyedine?"
"Could be," I said. "Bacteria getting into a wound and making it worse is one of
the things it can help to prevent, after all."
"Incredible..." she whispered.
"Anyway, the three-eyed are giving their full cooperation, and the country has no
intention of being stingy when it comes to medical care. The biggest bottleneck will
be the number of gelmedics that they can extract three-eyedine from, but thanks to
Tomoe, we easily solved that problem."
Slime creatures like gelins were actually categorized as plants, and she couldn't
communicate with them as well as animals; but from their thoughts, she had still
been able to learn their preferred environment and the conditions needed for them
to multiply. Now we had the gelmedics actively multiplying in their breeding
grounds.
"Our little sister is way too convenient, isn't she?" I added.
"She sure is," said Liscia.
The public had started calling Tomoe the Wise Wolf Princess. Given the
rhinosauruses, the orangutan army of Van, and now the gelmedics... there was no
doubt she was living up to that name.
"And, well, on that note, our country is in the middle of a medical and hygienic
revolution, and one part of that was fixing up these slums," I said. "We tore down the
old houses to improve the sunlight and air flow. While we were at it, we stamped out
the criminals and illegal drugs, which was cleaning up the area in a different way.
We had all the residents move to new, prefabricated huts. The huts are small and
cramped, but they're free. On top of that, by having them work at cleaning up the
city, we're able to both support them financially and manage the city's hygiene."
"You're doing all sorts of stuff, huh. ...You're not pushing yourself too hard, are
you?" Liscia asked, looking concerned.
I put a hand on her head. "It's a struggle, yes... but it's rewarding. I get to see the
city, and the country, rebuilt the way I want them to be. If the result is more people
smiling in the end, all the better."
"Well... Okay, then," she said. "But if there's anything I can do for you, just say the
word."
"Of course. I'll be counting on you."
Liscia and I smiled broadly at one another.
But just as we had a good mood going...
Pshhhh.
...suddenly, we heard a sound like air leaking out of something.
When I looked up ahead, wondering what it could be, I saw someone with a large
barrel on their back using a metal cylinder on the end of a hose extending from that
barrel to spray some sort of mist on the ground.
That person was an exotic-looking woman with skin not quite as dark as a dark
elf, but still brown, and blond hair. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was
probably beautiful, and she had a shapely figure, but with the triangular mask she
wore over her face and the barrel slung over her back, it all went to waste. That
woman's forehead had the third eye unique to the three-eyed race shining on it.
"Hehehe... Hohoho... Ahahahahahaha! Filth will be sterilized!" After that threestage laugh, the woman enthusiastically sprayed the ground and huts with some sort
of mist.
That all-too-incredible scene left Liscia, Carla, and Owen all speechless. As for me,
I felt my head starting to hurt again.
"What are you doing, Hilde?" I asked wearily.
Her name was Hilde Norg. In a show of appreciation for our support and the
redemption of their honor, the three-eyed had lent her to us to help reform our
system of medicine. She was their one and only "doctor."
In this world, there were very few doctors in the sense that a modern Japanese
person would think of the term. The ones who carried out the vast majority of
medical treatments were light mages, and the ones who administered herbal
remedies to help ease the symptoms of illness were medicine men and women.
Many of those light mages were affiliated with the church, and therefore most of
the hospitals were also attached to church buildings. That was why it was normal for
people in this world to go to the church when they were sick, but for the three-eyed,
it was a little different.
Because their medical technology was far more advanced, they could treat most
illnesses and injuries in the homes. When they came down with an illness so serious
that it couldn't be treated in the home, that was when they would first seek medicine
mixed by the doctor. Naturally, that doctor was the foremost expert of her race, and
so she could only prepare medicine for so many of them.
The one over there spraying a disinfectant (limewater, probably), Hilde, was the
one and only doctor of her race, considered to have a high degree of medical
knowledge, even by the standards of the three-eyed. However, with the way she was
dressed now, she just looked like a farmer spraying agricultural chemicals.
Hilde had been letting out a loud, enthusiastic laugh until a moment ago, but now
she wore a dark smile and had a heavy atmosphere around her. "Honestly... haven't I
told you people to pick up your cats' droppings?! Because you people keep leaving
them lying out in the open, there's bacteria all over this place! Oh, for goodness sake!
Unclean, unclean!"
This time, as he sprayed disinfectant, she stamped her feet indignantly. She might
have seemed emotionally unstable, but this was business as usual for Hilde.
She, with her knowledge of pharmacology and an eye for bacteria that was
considered excellent even by the standards of the three-eyed, also demonstrated an
obsession with cleanliness that was strong even by the standards of her race. To the
point that it was normal for her to walk around with disinfectant like that.
It wasn't always good to be able to see too much.
"I see you're the same as ever, Hilde," I said.
"Hm? You're... Who're you?"
I took off my conical hat and showed my face.
Without much surprise, she said, "Oh, just the king, huh," and returned to the
work of spraying disinfectant.
"Calling me 'just' the king is a little mean," I said. "It's technically an important
position, you know?"
"Then try to dress the part, why don't you?" she asked. "I thought you were some
hobo."
She was as harsh as ever. I'd had an image of doctors being harsh even back in
my old world, and it seemed things were the same here. Hilde in particular wasn't
the sort to care much about the position of the person she was talking to.
Hilde's philosophy was: "Illness strikes us all, good and evil, rich and poor, male
and female, irrespective of race. Then, before a doctor such as myself, all patients are
equal."
That was her argument, apparently.
"Anyway... Hilde, let me introduce you," I began. "The two ladies are—"
"I know who they are," Hilde said with a sigh, as if it was a given that she'd know
who they were. "They're famous, aren't they? The princess and the daughter of the
former General of the Air Force, right?"
"Huh? What about Sir Owen?" I asked.
"I don't want to know anything about that filthy old man."
"What?!" Owen protested. "Who are you calling filthy?! I take care to groom
myself properly!"
"Stay away, you musclebound moron! I hope you've washed yourself properly?!"
she shouted.
Pshhhh.
"Hey now, little girl, don't spray that weird mist on me! I am clean, you know?
Every day, I pour water over my naked body, then rub myself down with a dry
towel!" Owen shouted.
I was suddenly forced to imagine a macho man bathing naked in the dawning
light of morning. Yeah... It felt dirty just imagining it. Perhaps having imagined a
similar scene themselves, Liscia and Carla both looked ready to puke.
I-It felt like dwelling on this any longer was just going to make everyone's mental
state worse, so it was time to change the topic.
"B-By the way, Hilde, what are you doing here today?"
My forced attempt to change the topic got a snort from Hilde.
"If I leave the people here to their own devices, they become unhygienic in no
time. I'm making regular visits to instruct them on hygiene and to disinfect the area."
"Makes sense..." I said. "By the way, is your partner with you today?"
"Don't call him my partner." Hilde spat the words out, seemingly annoyed. "If
you're looking for Brad, he's 'outside.' He said, 'If I have to examine fattened pigs, I'd
much rather treat the untainted wild dogs'... or some such nonsense."
"...I see he never changes, either."
"Maybe you could you tell him off, too, sire," she said. "That guy always pushes
lecturing the junior physicians off on me."
"I-I see..."
The Brad who had come up in our conversation was the other doctor acting as a
pair with Hilde to push forward the reform of this country's medical system. His full
name was Brad Joker. He was a human male, and his skills as a medical practitioner
were good, but... his personality was a bit of a problem.
I can't see Brad ever being able to explain things to others. Showing off practical
skills in the field will offer guidance to his juniors, but Hilde's going to have to be the
one to hold lectures...
"Hey, are you listening to me, s-i-r-e?" Hilde snapped.
"I-I get it," I said. "I'll try talking to him, at least." If she was going to press me on
it with that angry smile, I just had to nod and agree with her.
"So? What is the king and his entourage doing here?" Hilde demanded.
"Oh... I was planning to visit the chief of the mystic wolves," I said. "While I'm at it,
I thought I might poke my head in at the job training facility I have Ginger running,
too."
"Oh, so that's the sort of business you had." Liscia clapped her hands as if she
finally understood something.
Oh, now that I thought about it, I hadn't told her what we were doing, had I?
"Then, once I've had the mystic wolf elder make a connection for me, I plan to go
'outside,'" I added.
"Ohh, you're going 'outside,' are you, sire?" Hilde asked. "In that case, maybe I'll
tag along."
"Huh? Why is that?"
"That should be obvious. To knock some sense into that examination-obsessed
idiot, that's why."
Hilde had a smile on her face, but her eyes weren't smiling.
"W-Well... Just try to not to go overboard, okay?" I asked nervously.
"Um, you keep talking about going 'outside,' but what exactly does that mean?"
Carla hesitantly raised her hand and asked.
"If we're talking outside from the perspective of being inside the city, it can only
mean outside the walls," Hilde said coolly.
"By outside the walls... could you mean...?" Liscia seemed to have figured
something out and had a pensive look on her face.
Yeah... It was probably exactly what she was imagining.
Regardless, thus was our group of a foreign traveler, a female student, a dragon
maid, and a macho man joined by a female doctor.
...Yeah. This group was making less and less sense.
Our first stop was the job training facility Ginger was in charge of.
The mystic wolves' Kikkoro Distillery, which produced miso, soy sauce, and sake,
among other products, was in the former slums. So was Ginger's job training facility.
Both had required considerable room, and this had been the only suitable place.
While it went without saying for the training facility, the Kikkoro Distillery also
had an easy time securing workers here, so it wasn't a bad location. That alone made
it worth having fixed the place up.
The job training facility was surrounded by brick walls, and there were a number
of buildings inside the compound. The place had just opened and so they were only
teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to the applicants, but the intention was to
experiment with all sorts of different ideas in the future, so the number of buildings
had increased.
When we went to enter through the front gate, a number of children ran out from
it.
"Goodbye, Ms. San!"
"Goodbye!"
They were all around the age of ten, maybe. They weren't that well dressed or
groomed, but they seemed full of energy.
When we looked in through the gate, the former slave who was now Ginger's
secretary, Sandria, was waving to the children. "Goodbye, children. Take care on
your way home."
The slight smile she saw them off with was a gentle one, very different from the
ill-tempered demeanor she'd had when we first met.
So, she can make an expression like that, too, huh...
While I was thinking that, Sandria noticed me and gave a respectful bow. "Why,
Your Majesty, how good of you to come visit us."
"Hey, Sandria," I said. "Is Ginger in?"
"He is in his office. I will show you the way there."
We followed Sandria into one of the buildings.
It was a simple, boxy design with no frills, but you could tell this building had a
lot of rooms even from the outside. It would have looked like a hospital or school to
a modern Japanese person.
We were led in front of a room on the first floor of that building with a sign that
read "Director's Office." When Sandria informed the occupant he had visitors and
opened the door, Ginger, who had apparently been doing desk work, hurriedly rose.
"Wh-Why, Your Majesty, it has been a while," Ginger said, rushing over to us.
Unlike Sandria, he did so timidly, and it seemed he still felt tense when talking to me.
"No need to be so stiff," I said. "I'm the one imposing on you here."
"N-No... It's no imposition whatsoever..."
"Your secretary there has her head held high, doesn't she?" I commented.
"Because my loyalty belongs to Lord Ginger alone," Sandria said nonchalantly as
she moved to Ginger's side.
It should have been quite the disrespectful statement, but there was something
about her demeanor that wouldn't let me take it that way. She was like Liscia's maid,
Serina, or the public representative for Roroa's company, Sebastian. Those people
who had found the master they meant to serve for the rest of their lives had a unique
intensity. It was like they could face down the king himself on their master's behalf.
"Ginger, let me introduce you," I said. "This is my fiancée, Liscia."
"Hello. I am Liscia Elfrieden." Liscia smiled and bowed, causing Ginger to stand
up very straight.
"Th-The princess?! Th-Thank you for coming to visit our humble establishment!
I-I'm... Ah, no, I am the one called Ginger Camus. With more support than I deserve
from His Majesty, I have been able to become the director of this facility..."
"Hee hee! No need to be so tense. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ginger."
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Ginger stiffly took Liscia's hand and shook it.
"It almost feels like you're more tense than the first time you met me..." I
murmured.
"I'm sure he is," said Carla. "Until your betrothal to her was announced, master,
Liscia was something like what we now call a lorelei to the people of the kingdom.
That unreachable flower, the princess who was so high above him that she might as
well be above the clouds, is now right in front of his eyes. He cannot be blamed for
being tense."
Carla's explanation made sense to me. Members of the Royal House, especially a
princess or a queen... they were like national idols in a way. I had seen the huge fever
that had gripped England when a new princess was born there on the news. Even in
Japan, news about the Imperial House and those connected to the imperial family
got a lot of attention.
After that, I also introduced Carla and Owen. Then, when I went to introduce
Hilde...
"Hilde and I are already acquainted," said Ginger. "She gives free medical
examinations to the children who come here. It's really been a great help."
Ginger bowed his head to her, causing Hilde to take on an awkward expression.
"Hmph. The brats are filthy, that's all. Who knows what diseases they're carrying
around."
"You say that, but you still come to visit us once or twice a week," said Sandria. "If
the children get injured, you heal them. I think that, for all that you say to the
contrary, you really do like children, don't you?"
"Sandria... If you say too much, I'll sew your mouth shut, you know that?" Hilde
snapped.
"Oh, pardon me," Sandria apologized nonchalantly while Hilde glared at her.
Yeah... Looking at Hilde just now, it made me remember the old lady at the
bakery in the neighborhood where I'd used to live a long time ago. Whenever the
children came up to her, she'd say, "Look at the noisy visitors," taking a sour attitude,
but then she'd add, "What hungry little brats you are," and would often give away
leftover sweet buns. Now that I thought back on it, it had been her way of masking
her shyness.
Hilde snorted. "I'll be waiting outside until you're all done talking."
"The children have all gone home, just so you know."
"Shut up, Sandria! Whoever said they wanted to play with the children?" Hilde
snapped.
"I didn't say that much..." Sandra said.
"Hmph!"
When Hilde left, violently slamming the door behind her, we all saw her off with
wry smiles.
...Now then. It was time to get back on track.
Liscia, Ginger, Sandria, and I sat down at a conference table. Liscia and I were
seated on one side, with Ginger and Sandria sitting across from us. Carla and Owen
were standing behind us.
Liscia raised her hand. "Um, I have a lot of questions... What exactly do you two
do here?"
"For the moment, we teach applicants how to read, write, and do arithmetic,"
Ginger answered with a gentle smile.
"Is that something like a school?"
"Yes. It's a school where anyone can come learn, regardless of class."
In this country, there were already proper educational institutions. The uniform
Liscia was wearing belonged to the Royal Officers' Academy, and there was also the
Royal Academy, which pumped out researchers in every field, as well as the Mages'
School, which specialized in the study of magic. However, those educational
institutions were almost entirely for the children of the knights and nobility. There
were no general schools meant to serve the common people. This job training
facility was serving as a test case for that sort of general school.
"Also, it's not only for children," said Ginger. "Adults can learn here, too."
"Adults, too?" Liscia asked.
"There are many adults who say they cannot read, write or do arithmetic. The
poorer their background, the more likely that is to be the case. We provide those
people a place to learn here, too. During the day, children learn, and then at night,
adults who have finished working during the day come here to study."
"Hm, so you've got them properly segregated into separate time periods..."
"It was His Majesty's idea to set up a time at night for adults to learn," said
Ginger.
It hadn't really been my idea. I had just recreated the night schools we'd had back
in the other world.
Ginger brought his hands together in front of his mouth. "This is all we can do
right now. However... from here on out, we'll be able to do more and more. Isn't that
right, sire?"
Ginger had turned the conversation over to me, so I nodded firmly. "Yeah. From
here on, I intend to have you teach more specialized topics. For instance, training
adventurers to explore dungeons and protect people, passing on civil engineering
techniques, working with Hilde and her people to train new doctors, studying ways
to improve our agriculture, forestry, and fisheries... Oh, also, I'd like a place for
training chefs, too."
"That's a pretty wide range of topics..." Liscia said.
I think you've figured it out now that I've said this much, but the job training
facility I wanted to create was a vocational school, or perhaps something like a
university made up of specialized departments.
The main focus of academic study in this world was either magic or monsters.
Magic could be applied with some versatility to any number of fields, and it also had
ties to science and medicine. As for the study of monsters, ever since the Demon
Lord's Domain appeared, it had been become one of the most important research
topics.
Before that point, the monsters that had only appeared in dungeons had been the
subjects for this sort of research. However, after the demon lord's domain had
appeared, the number and variety of monster sightings had increased by a factor of
ten. Research on the topic had been rushed along in order to find some solution to
the problem. Also, research on the materials that could be harvested from monsters
was indispensable for the development of technologies.
This sort of research on magic and demons was principally being done at the
Royal Academy. It was certainly true that the results of this sort of cutting edge
research could lead to new developments in other academic fields.
However, and this might be my sense as a Japanese person speaking, I thought
that there were incredible, revolutionary discoveries waiting to be found in research
that, at a glance, seemed pointless, too. Like how the techniques that were polished
and refined in downtown factories without gathering much attention could then
create indispensable parts for a spaceship.
No matter what the subject, if you mastered it, you were first class. If you could
become number one, you could become the only one.
That was why I wanted to create a place where the subjects that had been
neglected by this world—education, civil engineering, agriculture, forestry and
fisheries, cooking, and art—could be given specialized study and taught to other
people. And then, if we were able to see results in a given field from our experiment
at this training facility, we would build a training facility (at this point, more or less a
vocational school) for that subject in another city.
For that, it would first be necessary to raise the average level of education within
the kingdom, and that was why we were starting by teaching elementary level
reading, writing, and arithmetic.
I asked Ginger, "Well, what do you think? How are things with the training
facility?"
"Well... we are doing a good job of gathering children under the age of twelve,"
said Ginger. "The school meals system that you proposed has worked well, I would
say. There are times when it gets hectic, but we have created a cycle where they
show up, they study, they get a proper meal, and then they go home."
"School meals system?" asked Liscia.
"If children under the age of twelve come here and study, they are given free
meals to eat. If they study here, they can eat. Once this becomes widely known, the
children of families under financial stress will be more likely to come here and
study. Many of their guardians find it's better to send them here to study and save
the money it would take to feed them than it is to force the children to work for what
little money they can get. If they study properly, they may be able to escape from
poverty in the future, after all."
"Hmmm," said Liscia. "That's a well thought out system. Is that something they do
in your world, too, Souma?"
"Yeah," I said. "It's a method often used for providing support in poor countries."
Liscia seemed impressed, but Ginger's expression was more clouded.
"It's true, we're doing a good job of drawing in children. However, conversely, it's
hard to gather the adults, who aren't covered by the school meals system. We are
doing what we can by teaching them in the evening once their work lets out, but...
'I've lived all my life without being able to read, write, or do arithmetic. Why should I
learn to now?' they say, and won't even give us a chance."
"Well, if they've never had an education, I can see how they might think that
way," I said.
Only upon receiving an education is one able to understand the value of one.
While children may ask, "Why are we studying?" when they become adults they
think, "Why didn't I study more?" That they're able to have that regret at all is
because they were made to study as children.
"Well, enlightening them on the value of education is one part of our work," I
said. "I'll come up with something."
"Please do, sire."
Ginger and I naturally shook hands.
Finally, after touching base on a number of things, Ginger and Sandria saw us off,
and we left the training facility.
The next place we visited was the Kikkoro Distillery, not far from the training
grounds.
This distillery, which used a hexagon with the character for wolf in the center as
its brand mark, was run by mystic wolves like Tomoe, and it produced soy sauce,
miso, sake, and mirin.
Here, we met another person I knew.
When we entered the grounds, there was a plump man wearing short sleeved
clothes despite the winter chill.
"Hm? Poncho?" I asked.
"Wh-Why, Your Majesty! Good day to you, yes."
When he noticed us, Poncho bowed his head to me. Maybe he had gotten used to
the idea that he was only supposed to bow once. Before, he had been bobbing his
head up and down constantly.
"What are you doing here, Poncho?" I asked.
"Oh, that's right! Listen to this, sire!" Poncho trudged over with his abdominous
body.
"Whoa, you're getting too close!" I exclaimed. "...What's this, so suddenly?"
"At last, at long last, it's complete! That 'sauce' you have been requesting!" The
usually shy and reserved Poncho was incredibly excited, thrusting a bottle filled
with a black liquid out toward me.
The sauce I'd requested?
...Ah!
"You don't mean that's finally ready, do you?!"
"Please taste it for yourself, yes."
"Sure!" I dripped a few drops of the black liquid onto the back of my hand, then
licked them up.
It had a vegetable or fruit flavor and a spice-like fragrance. There was no doubt,
this was what we'd called sauce in Japanese. However, unlike ordinary
Worcestershire sauce, it had a strong sweetness and sourness, along with a depth of
flavor.
This was definitely the sort of sauce that went with yakisoba, a sauce for flourbased dishes.
"The taste of sauce... is a boy's flavor," I remarked, quoting a certain gourmet
manga.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking now?" Liscia said with a roll of her eyes,
snapping me back to my sense.
"It's just, the sauce we have been experimenting with is finally complete, so I was
filled with emotion."
"I-Is it that big of a deal?" Liscia asked.
"Of course! Because, with this, I can make yakisoba, okonomiyaki, monjayaki,
takoyaki, and sobameshi. It's good on fried dishes on its own, too."
"I barely know what any of the dishes you just named are..." Liscia murmured.
"I'll make them for you sometime soon. I mean, even if there are leftovers, I'm
sure Aisha will make them disappear for us."
But, still... at last, we had perfected this sauce for flour-based dishes.
It had been a long process. There had already been a sauce similar to
Worcestershire sauce in this world, but it hadn't been the sort of thick sauce that
would work well with yakisoba. I had thought I could create one somehow, and I'd
been working on it through a process of trial and error, but with no real knowledge
of sauces, it had proven to be beyond me. That was why I had ended up creating
those spaghetti buns before yakisoba buns. I had half given up on the development,
but it looked like Poncho had continued it for me.
"I'm impressed you were able to recreate it," I told him. "You'd never tasted it
yourself before, right?"
"I had Your Majesty's words, 'It's thicker than ordinary Worcestershire sauce,
sweet, and I think it felt a little sour,' the knowledge that there was a noodle dish,
'yakisoba,' which you would pour the sauce over and mix, and the memory of the
pasta dish you call Spaghetti Neapolitan, which gave me the hint I needed."
"The spaghetti did?" I asked.
"Yes, it did, yes. That spaghetti uses the tomato sauce called ketchup that I
developed with you, right, sire? I knew that ketchup went well with noodle dishes,
so I thought something similar to ketchup might have been used with this noodle
dish called yakisoba, yes."
"Ahh!" I cried.
I saw now! This sweet and tangy flavor came from fruits and vegetables! In other
words, this sauce for flour-based dished was made by adding tomato sauce and
other ingredients to a thick Worcestershire sauce, then? Poncho had an incredible
sense of taste to be able to figure that out on his own.
"Then, in order to give the Worcestershire and tomato sauce mixture a greater
depth of flavor, I tried adding the soy sauce and mirin produced here at the Kikkoro
Distillery. Um... How do you think I did?" he asked hesitantly.
I put my hands on Poncho's shoulders. "Poncho... you did well."
"Sire! You are too kind, yes!"
"Now, can this sauce be mass produced?" I asked.
"It seems the Kikkoro Distillery will take on the job for us."
That was wonderful. Now I could write another page in the culinary history of
the kingdom. When Poncho and I started excitedly talking about the topic of sauces,
the other members of the group... particularly the women, Liscia, Hilde, and Carla...
looked on, rolling their eyes.
"Souma's not a big eater, but sometime, he can be pretty picky about the
strangest details," Liscia said. "I wonder why that is?"
"That's just what men are like, Princess," said Hilde. "They pour needless passion
into things women don't understand, and they think nothing of the trouble they go
to doing it. They're such bizarre creatures."
"You speak like you have personal experience with this," said Carla. "Do you
know someone like that, Madam Hilde?"
"Don't ask about things you shouldn't, dragonewt girl," Hilde snapped. "I'll stitch
your mouth shut, you know?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am! I won't ask you anything, yes!" Carla hurriedly saluted, seemingly
having been infected with some of Poncho's speaking style as she did.
And, well, I was excited by the unexpected result, but it was about time to
accomplish my real objective here. I parted with Poncho and then, in the director's
office of the Kikkoro Distillery, I met with the elder of the mystic wolves who was
also the director of this place.
We sat across from him in the same arrangement as when we'd visited Ginger.
The elder's white hair, white eyebrows, and white beard were all long and thick,
reminding me of a Maltese. Except that inside all that hair, there was an old man.
The elder bowed his head deeply while still remaining seated. "We, the mystic
wolves, are endlessly grateful to Your Majesty for your protection, the construction
of this Kikkoro Distillery, and all of your other support. I thank you on behalf of my
people."
"It's fine," I said. "Little Tomoe's done a lot for us, too. Besides, it was fortunate
that people like you who knew how to grow rice and produce soy sauce, miso, mirin,
sake, and more came along. I get to eat tasty food, and I can feed it to other people,
too."
"You are very kind to say that," said the elder. "Now, sire, what manner of
business have you come here on today?"
"Yeah... I was thinking it was about time we resolved the issue outside."
"By 'outside,' you mean... the refugee camp?"
I silently nodded.